Sometimes one would prefer to be wrong, rather than right. The waste, errors, exaggerations, and lies of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation are such a case: Madison — Three Senate Democrats asked Wednesday [6.12] for a criminal investigation of Gov. Scott Walker’s signature job creation agency. The request comes after an audit last month found…
Government Spending
Government Spending, Walworth County
Hey, Walworth County, How About Buying Over-Priced, Half-Unsuitable Parkland with Taxpayer Money!
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Most people would say that among the important uses for public money are public safety (and the administration of justice) & emergency services for the truly needy. One might think of it this way: safety, justice, and poverty assistance. There are few people who would ask a small rural county – with a large state…
Business, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, State Government, Taxes/Taxation
Corporate Welfare in America’s Dairyland (Yet Again)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The practice of thriving, multi-million-dollar companies taking ordinary taxpayers’ money to subsidize their private ventures has two aspects: (1) it’s wrong, as it takes from those with little and gives to those with much and (2) it’s sadly commonplace. Consider the case of Husco International, a private company in Wisconsin with an expectation of “more…
Corporate Welfare, Federal Government, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park
No, That’s Not Why There’s an Innovation Center
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Perhaps, just perhaps, Whitewater’s a laboratory for testing the theory that if one repeats a flimsy explanation long enough, it will become true. Over at the Daily Union, there’s a recent story about a university project that’s developed a smartphone app that allows users “to link organized recreational activities with social media.” One reads that…
City, Government Spending, Local Government
Common Council 4.16.13: Downtown Whitewater, Library
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Representatives from Downtown Whitewater and the Public Library spoke last night. A few remarks about each — Downtown Whitewater. Two representatives from the DTWW Board, the president and vice-president of that body, addressed Council last night. (1) Rush to vote. Two council members moved to vote on a understanding between the City of Whitewater and…
CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, Press Release, State Government
Press Release Tips for the WEDC
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Let’s assume you’re a troubled, controversial public-private hybrid agency in Wisconsin, like the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. While spending vast sums of public money, you decide to issue a press release announcing taxpayers’ your largesse. You must know – and hope residents of a small city don’t know — that you’re politically toxic, across the…
CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Law, Official Misconduct, Open Government, State Government, Taxes/Taxation, Wisconsin
The Truth about the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
A person should be able to make simple distinctions, as between the sensible and foolish, or practical and impractical. Sometimes those distinctions should be clear, and as stark as the difference between the contents of a sample cup and a glass of Chardonnay. You’ll hear a lot locally over the next few days about a…
Business, City, Government Spending
Whitewater’s Downtown, January to December
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Like many towns, Whitewater has a downtown, and a merchants’ association, in our case Downtown Whitewater, Inc. (DTWW). I’ve written occasionally about DTWW, and not long ago in support of continued municipal funding for that organization. See, The City of Whitewater’s 2013 Budget: Downtown Whitewater, Inc. There’s been a wider effort to reorganize and consolidate…
Crime, Government Spending, Local Government, Planning
Is This What Janesville’s Leaders Really Meant by ‘Regionalization’?
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
About two months ago, Janesville’s City Manager, Eric Levitt, came to Whitewater asking for money to support a public transit bus to benefit Generac (and anyone else Janesville’s transportation director will undoubtedly throw into the mix to justify ten thousand from Whitewater and hundreds of thousands from taxpayers in total). During his appearance before Whitewater’s…
Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, Local Government, Taxes/Taxation
Grant-Chasing
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Janesville now has her hundreds of thousands for a bus. It should be no surprise that those who have flacked every possible public program as the Next Big Thing (no matter how neglectful of dire needs) would herald state and federal grants as though they were genuine, private productivity. The fawning need to tout the…
Federal Government, Government Spending
Public Elves? Oh, Brother
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The days of a quiet, humble ‘job well done’ are over. One knows this, after seeing a public service video in which government workers praise themselves, and liken their own work to that of eleves. Say what one might about the productivity of the government, at least it’s working overtime on the self-promoting-video front. Published also at Daily Adams.
City, Government Spending, Local Government, Planning
Starting Backwards
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Local governments find themselves, time and again, surprised when projects don’t go to plan. They’re often surprised when the politics of a project don’t go to plan. That surprise may have a hundred causes, but I’d guess one is among the most common: that plans advance not on their merits, but through ill-considered deals between…
Federal Government, Government Spending
Three Good Reasons to Abolish the Department of Homeland Security
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
City, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending
Whitewater Uses Public Money for Big Corporation While Big Corporation Invests in Whitewater Mexico
by JOHN ADAMS • • 4 Comments
On Tuesday while Whitewater’s City Manager, the Janesville City Manager, and the Janesville Transportation Director were advocating for Whitewater to spend public money for a bus route that primarily benefits $2.3 billion-dollar Generac, Generac was investing forty-six million dollars in Mexico. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has the story: Generac Holdings Inc. has agreed to acquire…